50 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
as nuts, and in pairs; the serrated sca-weed (Fucus serratus), 
whose thongs have their edges jagged, and whose surface is 
frequently covered with the most delicate lacework, which was 
the handiwork of a parasitical zoophyte, the Wembraniposa. ‘The 
Fucus siliquosus is also found, which has long flattened capsules, 
marked by transversal partitions. On some shores there are as 
many as 30,000 persons who go down to the beach to gather 
these fuci thrown up by the waves, or: to cut those which grow 
upon the rocks, and which the ebbing tide has uncovered. Since 
in this harvest, or rather pillage, the rich, who have the greatest 
number of teams, and can employ the most hands, would take the 
greatest share, the Catholic priests of the middle ages established a 
worthy custom. No one was allowed to gather the sea-weed the first 
day of the “harvest,” except the poorer inhabitants of the parish. 
These borrowed their neighbours’ horses and carts, and thus were 
enabled to collect sufficient for their wants. In the neighbourhood 
of Finisterre this ancient custom is still preserved. The first day 
of cutting the sea-weed is called “the day of the poor.” The priest 
comes down to the beach in the morning, and if one of the rich 
come to gather the weeds, the village Nestor prevents him with 
the rebuke, “ Let the poor gather their bread.” 
The labourers who make soda from the wrack. go to the most 
favourable spots for collecting the weed, in bodies of six together, 
and construct a kind of cabin, where they pass the night. When 
the sea is “out,” the men spread themselves over the rocks, tear off 
the wrack, and throw it into heaps. It is then carried to a spot 
on the shore beyond the reach of the waves, either on rafts or 
hurdles or on their backs. Here they spread it out to dry. When 
it is sufficiently dry, they pile it in kilns, which are rude structures 
made of four flags laid in a rectangle, and in this they set it on fire. 
The combustion is very slow, and a dense and very disagreeable 
smoke rises from the burning heap. The sea-weeds, which are con- 
stantly stirred about with an iron bar, give out great heat. The 
ashes undergo a kind of vitrification and run together into a mass ; 
this is £e/p. Every year 20,000 men used to be engaged in making 
kelp in the Orkneys; at the present time the making of soda, 
which the kelp was subsequently treated for, has been superseded 
by the extraction of iodine, which is more profitable. 
